Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha): “Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find anything that agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

This week we finished the Jewish tradition of observing Passover and for the Christians Easter and for the Muslims they support them both in some respects. Within those religions there are traditions and prayers and ceremonies that are used this time each year. The Jewish tradition of not eating leavened bread is one most people have heard of and everyone has seen the shelves filled with matzo in your grocery stores.

Thus the Buddha admonishes us not to celebrate our traditions because our parents did or our grandparents did but because there is value in doing so. The traditions allow us to take time out of our daily chores and focus our thoughts and energy on something that will help us grow and be a better person. They give us an opportunity to look at our behaviors and examine their purpose and outcomes and how they affect our lives, our families, and our communities.

They give us the opportunity to look at our spiritual lives and how we practice our beliefs on a daily basis. They help us examine our ethics and morals, and our behaviors. As the Buddha said, they give us the opportunity for “observation and analysis.” At the Southern Palm Zen Group we celebrate one thing each year Rohatsu “the day on which according to tradition Shakyamuni Buddha sitting in meditation under the Bodhi-tree at the first glimpse of the morning star attained enlightenment.”[1] Our celebration is sitting (meditating) through the night, if you can do it, if not, sitting as long as you are able.

Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

Dr. Simon Longstaff, executive director of the St James Ethics Centre in Sydney, Australia, wrote in the New Philosopher (June 2, 2013),

“I would suggest that one can make sense of Socrates’ claim if it is understood to mean something like – those who do not examine their lives (make conscious ethical decisions) fail to live a life that allows them to experience being fully human. Thus the allure of those who offer to provide clear answers, simple directions, precise instructions (whatever) so that you may set aside examination and merely comply, or unthinkingly follow custom and practice – perhaps living a conventionally moral life rather than an examined ethical life. One can easily imagine how pleasant an unexamined life might be. ”[2]

What does “being fully human” mean to you? When was the last time you sat down and really examined your life? What did you find? Finally, what did you actually do with what you discovered?

Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha): “Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your elders and teachers.”

Wow! Now that is coming from a great elder, teacher, and thinker—the Buddha! As a teacher, trainer, and college professor for most of my adult life I am in complete oneness with this axiom. Just because the teacher says so does not MAKE it so. Everyone is born into a family, culture, country, and religion that has the desire to propagate themselves and their culture and beliefs. Every culture has leaders and teachers who help share those ideas to ensure that they live on.

Whether you are an indigenous group such as the Aborigines in Australia, the Iroquois in North America, or the Mashco-Piro tribe in Peru they have believes that have been handed down by generations of elders and teachers. Each is unique in its teachings and beliefs as we all are. So if we move from one culture or religion to another we take on those beliefs and live by them.

As we discover new things through science and research we may look at our teachers and elders and what they taught us and say that some of their ideas might be called “superstitions” today. Thus the Buddha says we need to be curious and if need be do our own research and studies and discover what is “true” and “right” for us in our lives or in a particular situation.

I had a friend many years ago who went into the Catholic priest to ask some questions that were concerning her about her faith and she was told to just belief whatever they told her and when she refused to do so they excommunicated her. The Buddha was way before his time in this axiom. He understood that knowledge is fleeting and changing and that thinking too much can get us into trouble.

And thus he said, “Do not go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by rumors, by scriptures, by surmise, conjecture and axioms, by inference and analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by specious reasoning or bias toward a notion because it has been pondered over, by another’s seeming ability, or by the thought, ‘This monk is our teacher.” But when you yourself knows: ‘Such and such things are unskillful, blameworthy, criticized by the wise, and if adopted and carried out lead to harm and ill and sufferings,’ you need to abandon them.”

This is the difficult way! It is so much easier to let others do the research, the writing, and the teaching and follow them like lemmings then it is to think for yourself, read, research, and then practice the teachings and discover the power for yourself. Yet, I recommend it highly. I hope you’ll try it out and let me know how it worked!

Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha): “Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.”

It is okay to begin your journey by reading the books and watching the videos and once you’ve done that throw it all away and discover it for yourself in your own way and in your own time. That will enhance your knowledge, give you practical experience in the area that you are working on and make it “real” in mind, body, and spirit.

I can watch all the great ice skaters in the world on TV, and I can go see them perform live in the stadium. I can feel the beautiful music vibrating in my ears and moving down into my body and enjoy its bliss. But until I put on a pair of skates I don’t know what skating is!

Do not believe what others tell you about skating—experience it for yourself! When I began studying metaphysics in the 90’s I was book learned, I taught classes, and shared my knowledge from the pulpit. But until I started to meditate daily, and create my own treasure maps, and write my own affirmations and use them daily and saw the things manifest in my life—I really didn’t know what metaphysics was.

Even though I heard and read about the power of prayer until I prayed with one of my congregants in a hospice setting and saw and heard her in prayer with me I did not really know the power of prayer. Her belief in that prayer helped her walk out of the center a few days later healed. She moved back to the north east where she continued to live many years in good health.

Once she came back to Florida to visit her family and dropped in on one of my classes and shared this story with us. Her doctor had told her that her healing from prayer changed his belief in God. My purpose is not to try to make you believe in a God or a supreme power or the like, but simply to illustrate the teaching of the Kalama Sutra, “Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.” The doctor had seen it with his own eyes in one of his own patients.

Thus we live a life of “free inquiry” not believing in anything simply because we have heard it or read it or seen it on the internet! Regardless if the ideas are written in any ancient scriptures and in any ancient language. We must discover it for ourselves. Live a life of free inquiry and watch what happens in your life when you do!

If you are seeking to live your life through right vision and incorporating more good into your life you’ll enjoy The Kalama Sutra and its teachings. This teaching encourages free inquiry. It has been said that it is also “exempt of fanaticism, bigotry, dogmatism, intolerance and more.” In this new workbook and blog series I am going to share with you some ideas on how to live that life through your thoughts and actions each and every day.

The Kalamas were a group of people who lived in a town called Kesaputta during the time Shakyamuni Buddha walked the earth. Many came to see him teach and asked him questions. The Sutra shares the questions and the answers. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Many wonderful teachers, translators, and authors have divided this sutra into several different topic areas that are listed below. We will be taking each topic and discovering what it means in our lives, how we can live it, and what will happen for us when we do. If this type of inquiry excites you I hope you’ll join me on this new adventure in Buddhism.

Zen: “It was this balanced ‘middle path’ approach, avoiding the two extremes of stagnation and excessive striving, which had enabled him [Siddhartha Gautama] to gain awakening (page 38).”[2]

The extremes of our life are what causes most of our pain and suffering. How often have we gone to excess in even the simplest things, too much food at a restaurant or a family dinner or community pot luck supper? How often have we spoken out of turn and thus hurt our self or another? How often have we put so much time and energy into our work or a hobby that our family and personal lives suffered?

Many people have gone to the extreme with a way of living, eating, exercising, working, or fasting. I once had a congregant who would only eat dark green leafy things and I had a friend in college who thought that if one glass of carrot juice was good for her six a day would be even better. They both ended up with vitamin K poisoning and almost died. Too much of a good thing can kill you!

“The Buddha pointed out that by avoiding stagnation and excessive striving he had been able to ‘cross the flood’ which similarly recommend neither going too far nor lagging behind (page 39).” In his life he had tried every different religion or path to find “enlightenment.” He even practiced aestheticism to such a degree that he was eating only one grain of rice a day. Needless to say he was visiting death’s door as the story goes.

“About this time a young girl came by and offered the emaciated Siddhartha a bowl of milk and rice. At this point, Siddhartha had realized the path to awakening was a ‘middle’ way between extremes of self-denial and self-indulgence.”[3]

As Emerson says, “The mid-world is best.” Take some time today and find your extremes and ask yourself are they helping or hindering you. If they are hindering you decide today to begin living the “middle way.” Whether your extreme behavior is too little or too much find the middle way and a wonderful balance will appear in your life.

Soon you will live a life where you feel fulfilled. The fruits of the middle world will appear. You will discover that life can actually be fun!

Try it I think you’ll like living in the middle world! Let me know how it goes.

“No truth so sublime but it may be trivial tomorrow in the light of new thoughts (page 9).”[1]

Timber Hawkeye The Buddhist Boot Camp:

I knew what they meant: focus on the teachings, not the teacher (page 51).[2]

I know you are reading and listening and googling your favorite teachers and guru’s every day. You spend time reading their books, listening to their pod casts, reading their blogs, newsletters, and more. Many of you are running to the current most famous guru or teacher that you’ve seen on TV or the internet. You hope to find the answer to all of your pains, sufferings, and questions about life. And when they don’t give you the answer you move on to the next “teacher” and the next to no avail. Why? Because the greatest teacher is right within you!

There is no greater teacher then one that lies within you. One fad teacher seems to have the “sublime answer” and then the next new face or name has the newest “sublime answer or new thought.” From the horse and buggy to the car. From the airplane to the moon and mars. What next? Who next? And yet the answer is always within you. Within your divine wisdom—if you just go within and listen.

Be open during your meditation to sit quietly, focus on your breath, and wait upon nothing. That is when miracles arrive. That is when you open your mind to the great mind of the universe. In those silent moments you tap into infinity.

Then you can be open to receive the answer to all of your questions. The answer may come later in the day while washing the dishes or mowing the lawn. It may come to you while swimming or riding your bike. But come it will. It probably won’t come from focusing on the wisdom of the “teacher” but on the wisdom of your intuitive creative mind.

All great inventors and scientists learned the basics from teachers and books and then they let the rest appear. Albert Einstein is said to have had a dream/vision of himself flying through space and came up with E=mc squared. And Thomas Edison when he could not find the answer to a difficult problem would lay down on a bench in his laboratory and hold a coin in his hand and when it dropped on the floor it would wake him from his lucid dream state and the answer to the problem was there!

This short list includes some of the great founders of the world’s religions and philosophies: Yahwists, Zoroaster, Laozi, Siddhartha Gautama, Confucius, Ezra, Jesus, Muhammad, Mary Baker Eddy, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, and Helen Blavatsky. These are just a few of the original minds that were the impetus of a religion or belief system that we have in the world today. Each brought their own flavor and ideas to the mix. Each brought a “new thought” to the world to help them cope with the challenges of their time.

You too can use their thoughts and ideas to propel you to expand your consciousness and create your own path of wisdom, meaning, and knowledge to help you live a life of peace, love, and compassion. Be open to new ideas, focus on the teachings not the personalities. Allow your mind to open to expand to new ideas that will challenge your beliefs and move you forward into “new frontiers.” Remember it is not the teacher that is important it is the teaching!

The Bodhi Tree (Ficus religiosa) is known for its prominent place in Buddhism as the place where Siddhartha Gautama (Shakyamuni Buddha) meditated for 49 days after which he attained complete enlightenment. The leaf shown here was collected by me at the Brevard Zen Center on a silent retreat. This beautiful tree is located on the front of the property and stands as a symbol of the opportunity given to all the retreatants to experience the mystery of the moment for themselves. To discover the oneness that is everywhere present in this eternal now moment in which we live.

We stood beneath the tree in memory of our dear friend Michael who had passed quietly in his sleep the day before our scheduled retreat. It is tradition to do 106 bows in memory and to honor those who have studied with us and brought the dharma to life in the here and now.

What moment are you living in? Are your thoughts and feelings taking you into the past or projecting you into the future? How many minutes of now have you missed, forgotten, or never discovered.

As a Unity minister I found that often my congregants would come to me with their problems and say how they were unable to sleep for days because of the wandering of the mind into projections of the future. I would ask them this question: What could you do about the unpaid bill, or the job interview, or that argument with your teenager at three in the morning? Of course, there response was: absolutely nothing.

It is not easy, but it is also not impossible, to quiet the mind–it simply takes practice. Living in this moment is focusing on each breath with peace and quiet and joy knowing that you still have life within you, it is being one with all that exists with peace, love, and compassion.

In order to be there for others I have to be there for myself first. I have to keep my mind, body, and spirit healthy and loved. And then I will have the ability and the energy to be there for others.

It is amazing how much energy, love, and compassion I have when I stay in the eternal now moment! What can I do right NOW? Begin by taking three slow deep breaths to center yourself. Feel the life force energy flowing through you as the oxygen feeds your body and brain. Feel the peace that passes all understanding melt into every cell of your body as you continue to count your in-breaths and your out-breaths.

Be one with your breath in this eternal now moment and you just may awaken as Siddhartha Gautama (Shakyamuni Buddha) did underneath the Bodhi Tree! Let me know how it goes!